Maire Leadbeater (née Locke, born 19 October 1945[1]), is a New Zealand human rights and peace activist, writer, and former social worker.
[2] Leadbeater played a leading role in the New Zealand branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and has also advocated on human rights issues relating to East Timor, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
[6][7] At the age of ten, Leadbeater began distributing a Communist newspaper called People's Voice while living in Christchurch.
[4][5] During the 1970s, Leadbeater became active in the New Zealand arm of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which had been founded by her mother Elsie Locke.
Leadbeater has argued that the intelligence services' claim to combat "subversion and security threats" were a smokescreen for "targeting people and movements who disagree with the political status quo.